Spain is still basking in a second World Cup title, but a strange piece of FIFA paperwork has needled the celebrations back home: the ballot for the tournament's official Team of the Tournament left out the two centre-backs who marshalled the meanest defence at the 2026 finals.
ONE reports that when FIFA published its list of nominees for the World Cup 2026 Team of the Tournament, Pau Cubarsí and Aymeric Laporte — Spain's first-choice central defensive pairing through the knockout rounds — were nowhere on it.
It is a curious omission on the numbers alone. Spain conceded a single goal across the entire tournament, the best defensive record of any of the 48 teams, with Cubarsí and Laporte at the heart of it in every game that mattered.
The snub looks stranger still next to Cubarsí's other silverware from the summer: the 19-year-old Barcelona defender was named the tournament's Young Player of the Tournament, an award FIFA itself handed him for exactly the kind of composed, high-volume defending that somehow didn't earn him a place on the Best XI shortlist.
Goal.com's Saudi Arabia edition carried the same story, reporting that FIFA "sparked a wave of fierce criticism in Spain" by leaving the pair off the voting list, even as it nominated Spain's two full-backs, Marc Cucurella and Pedro Porro, for defensive slots instead.
Porro's attacking numbers — among the highest chance-creation figures of any full-back at the finals — and Cucurella's assist tally made their inclusion easy to defend. But Spanish pundits and fans, according to the reports, struggled to square attacking output outweighing a defence that shipped almost nothing all tournament.
Laporte's absence carries its own subplot. The 32-year-old, born and raised in France, qualified for Spain through residency after years at Athletic Bilbao and Manchester City, and has spent this World Cup as vice-captain of the back line — a late-career vindication now shadowed by the snub.
None of it changes what actually happened on the pitch. Spain beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time in the final at MetLife Stadium on July 19, with Ferran Torres settling it in the 105th minute to hand Luis de la Fuente's side the country's second World Cup, its first since 2010.
Rodri collected the Golden Ball as the tournament's outstanding player, Kylian Mbappé took the Golden Boot, and goalkeeper Unai Simón won the Golden Glove — a haul that underlines just how dominant this Spain side was, even before FIFA's own paperwork became the story.
